MacRumors

Web domain registrar GoDaddy and donation platform Causemo today separately announced they now accept Apple Pay on their respective websites.

GoDaddy is providing Apple Pay to all of its online store merchants who enable credit card payments through Stripe on mobile devices.

Causemo, a startup platform enabling non-profit organizations to acquire and retain donors, is providing Apple Pay on the web in Safari on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. When using Apple Pay, donors do not have to enter their billing, shipping, or contact details. Apple Pay is shown as the default payment option on enabled devices.

In November, Apple announced that nonprofit organizations in the United States are now able to accept donations using Apple Pay.

"We're making it incredibly easy to give back with Apple Pay," said Jennifer Bailey, Apple's vice president of Apple Pay. "Websites and apps tell us they see twice as many people actually completing a purchase with Apple Pay than with other payment methods. We think offering such a simple and secure way to support the incredible work nonprofits do will have a significant impact on the communities they serve."

Earlier this month, Apple Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey said 35% of merchants in the United States now accept Apple Pay, compared to only 4% of merchants that accepted the payment option when it launched in October 2014.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.1.1 update to developers for testing purposes, just days after releasing the tvOS 10.1 update and more than a month after launching tvOS 10.

Designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV, the tvOS 10.1.1 beta can be obtained by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, downloading and installing the software from a registered developer account via iTunes or Apple Configurator.

Once a beta profile has been installed on the device through iTunes, new beta updates will be available over the air.

It's not yet known what new features or changes might be included in the new tvOS beta, but as a 10.1.x update, it's likely to be minor in scale, introducing bug fixes and other performance enhancements.

tvOS 10.1.1 follows tvOS 10.1, a major update that introduced the new "TV" app, which serves as an Apple-designed television guide and TV watching hub.

Instagram today launched a small update for its iOS and Android apps, allowing users to save a post they're interested in to check out later. Underneath each post in the feed users will find a small bookmark icon, and tapping it will send it to a new Saved Post section in the Profile tab.

Saved Posts are private and only visible for you to view, and Instagram says that it'll help organize and memorialize each user's favorite videos and images from their feeds and the Explore tab. Any public profile can have their pictures saved for later by other users, but only followers of private accounts can save their posts.

When you stumble upon a funny video you want to remember, a new outfit you like or even inspiration for an upcoming vacation, you can now keep track of favorite posts right from your profile.

Over the past few months Instagram has been focusing on "pressure-free" updates and anti-harassment tools that let users navigate and post on the social network in a more relaxed environment. Coming soon, users will be able to turn the comments section of their posts off completely.

Instagram is available to download from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Twitter today will begin rolling out a new update for its iOS and Android apps centered around the introduction of a full-featured live video client within the social networking app (via The Verge). The live video functionality is "powered by Periscope," but doesn't require users to have downloaded that app separately.

The new update is an expansion of the "Go Live" Periscope button Twitter introduced to a small group of users over the summer, but is now more deeply integrated into Twitter. For example, new broadcasts will appear on followers' timelines, and users will be able to tap to join, and then send comments and hearts. To initiate a broadcast, users must navigate to compose a tweet, tap the camera icon, tap the Periscope "Live" button, and begin the live video.

Periscope was bought by Twitter in early 2015, and the former app had a well-publicized debut year, ending up as Apple's App of the Year in the Best of 2015 charts last December. The service has slowly tapered off in popularity ever since, leading to Twitter's slow integration of Periscope into the main Twitter app this year. Still, Periscope told The Verge that the dedicated live-streaming app will continue to exist and be updated.

Periscope says the app will continue to be developed. “We are fully invested in the Periscope app,” said Sara Haider, senior engineering manager at Periscope. She noted that not all Periscope users regularly use Twitter.

Twitter's hopes for live streaming have expanded beyond mobile as well, with the company introducing a live video-focused Apple TV app this past September.

Facebook began heavily integrating live video into its mobile app in 2016 as well, and even launched a specific marketing campaign aimed at promoting it. In related live video news, Instagram just this week expanded live video to all U.S. users, YouTube for iOS added the feature, the creators of the now-dead Vine app announced a live-streaming app, and an all-new service called "Live.ly" breached the top of the Top Free iPhone Apps chart this summer.

Apple TV universal search received a major update this week, expanding to 10 new apps in the United States. On the fourth-generation Apple TV, users can now search for movies and TV shows on Apple Music, Animal Planet GO, Crunchyroll, CuriosityStream, Investigation Discovery GO, Science Channel GO, TBS, TNT, TLC GO, and Tribeca Shortlist.

For those unfamiliar with universal search, it's a feature that allows users to conduct Siri voice searches or text-based searches to find TV and movie content across a wide range of channels. At launch, universal search only supported a few channels, but Apple has been rapidly expanding the feature to encompass additional channels.

Apple TV universal search is now available for a wider number of apps in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K., but the feature is limited to iTunes and Netflix in France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. In some other countries and regions, only movies in iTunes are supported.

Meanwhile, in Germany, users can now search for episodes on Galileo.

After launching on Apple.com early yesterday with a delivery window somewhere between December 19 and December 22 for most countries, Apple's new wireless headphones have now slipped to 4 week delivery estimates for most launch countries and territories. Within 90 minutes, shipping windows for Apple's United States website slipped to 4 weeks yesterday, but most European countries held onto deliveries before Christmas for a while longer, as well as having estimates a few days ahead of U.S. customers.

Now, for most territories in Europe where the AirPods are available shipping dates have lengthened to 4 weeks, including: France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Italy, and more. Elsewhere around the world, Apple.com in Singapore, Japan, and Australia have all had their AirPods shipping estimates slip to 4 weeks into 2017. In total, AirPods are available in more than 100 countries.

When they debuted on Apple.com, the company noted that the first round of AirPods shipments would be available in "limited quantities," meaning many of its customers missed out on the opportunity to purchase the wireless headphones as Christmas presents. There remains a sliver of hope, however, with Apple noting that its retail stores will receive "regular AirPods shipments," but it's not clear which stores specifically, and when they'll begin getting the shipments. Apple authorized resellers and select carriers will also get some AirPods inventory next week.

Apple has also added a few support pages onto its website centering around how to use the AirPods, adjusting its features, and the device's various technical specifications.

Amazon today announced that its Prime Video streaming service has expanded to over 200 countries including India, the company's largest available market outside the U.S.

Prime Video is automatically available at no additional cost to Amazon Prime members in Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and Spain, and to customers in new Prime Video territories at an introductory price of $2.99 (or 2.99 euros) per month for the first six months.

In India, the service comes bundled with Prime. Prime usually costs Rs 999 ($15) for an annual subscription, but to celebrate the launch of Prime Video, Amazon is currently offering annual membership to new customers at the heavily discounted price of Rs 499 ($7.50).

That makes Prime Video the least expensive streaming video service in the country by some margin, with similar service Netflix costing Rs 500 on a rolling monthly basis.

The aggressive pricing strategy indicates Amazon's continuing eagerness to make deep inroads into the Indian market. The company has been busy acquiring rights to local content over the last few months, and has partnered with several major Bollywood studios and distributors to make titles available exclusively on Prime Video.

The catalog in Amazon Prime Video contains titles in several Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu, as well as an English section featuring many popular U.S. shows.

South Korea's Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) said it is considering an investigation into whether some iPhone 6s devices experiencing unexpected battery shutdowns is a safety issue, according to The Korea Herald.

"The agency is well aware of recent iPhone issues and is taking a close look at it," an unnamed KATS official told The Herald. While KATS hasn't officially launched an investigation, it wants to make sure the problem isn't like the Galaxy Note 7 battery issue, which caused devices to randomly catch fire and start smoking. The agency is currently in talks with Apple Korea about the issue.

In November, Apple launched a repair program for iPhone 6s devices experiencing the unexpected shutdowns, saying that "a very small number of iPhone 6s devices" that were manufactured between September and October 2015 were affected. Apple said the problem was "not a safety issue."

On its Chinese website, Apple said the shutdowns were caused by a manufacturing error where some batteries were overexposed to "controlled ambient air," causing them to degrade faster than normal. In addition to its repair program, Apple now lets you check your iPhone 6s serial number to see if you're eligible for a new battery.

Google Drive was updated today to make it easier for users to transfer their content from iOS devices to Android devices, Google announced. The company also published a new web page on the Android website detailing how it works.

Once a user downloads Google Drive from the App Store, they can navigate toward the backup wizard by going to Menu > Settings > Backup in the app. From there, users can choose to sync select contacts, calendar events and photos or everything. Google recommends that users backup when their iPhone is connected to power and is on Wi-Fi, as backing up can take several hours. Additionally, the Google Drive app must stay open and the screen must stay on.

When users sign into their Google account on their new Android device their content will automatically sync.

Google has tried to make it easier for iPhone users to switch to Android in recent months, packing in a "Quick Switch Adapter" with the Pixel, which quickly transfers data directly from an iPhone to a Pixel phone. While the Quick Switch Adapter only works with the Pixel phone, the Google Drive method will also work with non-Pixel Android phones.

iPhone users who want to switch to Android must turn off iMessage before they officially switch devices.

Google Drive is available in the App Store for free. [Direct Link]